Weekly Massive Meal: An Italian Feast

So, I have decided that I am going to do a large, (um, maybe?) fancy dinner once a week. Reasons for this are twofold: (1) I do not have the money to make fancy pants meals all the time; and, (2) I do not have the time to make fancy pants meals all the time. Last week I made this. And it was awesome. But, this week I wanted to do something different. When I think "big meal," my mind instantly goes "Latin-themed," so I felt like branching out a little and eating something different. Natch: Italian.

I saw an episode of "Giada at Home" on the Food Network recently, and she made this unintentionally vegan pasta dish, pasta alla formiana. It sounded interesting (as you will see below: you don't precook the pasta, it just bakes) and yums, plus I have seen it around on other vegan food blogs I frequent. I decided it seemed not only doable, but pretty cheap to put together. To go with it, I made some garlic bread and a yummy warm bean salad.

Time for recipes galore!

Pasta alla Formiana:

Ingredients:

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 clove garlic, minced/chopped

1/2 pound whole wheat penne pasta

1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for drizzling (this is what the recipe calls for, I actually did a little less)

1/4 cup dried oregano (yes, 1/4 CUP. You have gotta love oregano to love this dish!)

Salt and Pepper to taste

4-5 very ripe beefsteak tomatoes, cut into slices

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 450F.

-Blend together crushed tomatoes and garlic in blender.
-Pour into a medium bowl and add uncooked pasta, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Toss together until coated.

-Grease a baking dish (if using glass). I used another type, so I lined it w/aluminum foil and coated w/some olive oil.

-Line the bottom and sides of dish with sliced tomatoes

-Pour in the pasta/sauce mixture and spread evently

-Top with sliced tomatoes, then drizzle the top w/a little olive oil and a couple of cracks of pepper.

-Bake at 450 for about 1 hour, until pasta is cooked. Let cool before digging in!

Garlic Bread 

(from The Vegan Table)

Ingredients:

-1 loaf crusty bread (I went with good ol' Italian)

-5-6 cloves garlic, minced 

-1/4 c. olive oil (you could probably melt down some Earth Balance instead, if you wanted)

-parsley (optional)

-pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 (I used the toaster oven for the pasta and the "big" oven for the bread)

- Cut bread in-half, lengthwise

-In a small bowl, mix together garlic, olive oil, parsley and S&P

-Spread mixture over the bread evenly

-Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Canellini and Roasted Red Pepper Salad w/Lemony Parsley Pesto

Ingredients:

- 1 can canellini beans, rinsed and drained

- 1 (or more if you like) roasted red pepper, sliced into strips

- 2 cloves garlic

- 1 1/2 c. flat leaf parsley

-  1/4 c. olive oil + 1 tbs. for pan

- 2-4 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

-S&P to taste

- red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

For the pesto:

(I made this about 30 minutes before I made the beans, so the flavors would have time to meld!)

-Blend the parsley, 1 clove of minced garlic, S&P, lemon juice and red pepper flakes in a food processor.

-Add in 1/4 c. olive oil (or more or less, depending on desired consistency).

-Set aside and let it meld into lemony, parsley awesomeness....

For the Beans:

-Drizzle enough oil in the pan to fry the remaining 1 clove of garlic (for about 30 seconds, or till fragrant)

- Add the roasted red peppers and stir on medium for 1-2 minutes

-Add the beans and heat through (about 3 minutes)

I served the beans over romaine lettuce with a drizzle of the pesto on the top. It was sooooooo good!!

Here is the entire (way to large) plate:

 

I loved this entire meal!!! A couple of words of warning; however: if you do not like the following ingredients:

1. Lemon

2. Oregano

3. Tomatoes

DO NOT, under any circumstances, make this meal! The pasta is amazing, and the oregano flavor is really pronounced. Perhaps my favorite part was the pesto. When I took a small taste after blending it, I thought "Oh, shit, I have screwed this up," because it was soooooooooooo lemony; however, when just drizzling it over the beans and romaine, it was PERFECT!

I don't eat Italian-style food very often, but this whole meal inspired me to rethink that position.

Guatita: AKA Holy.Shit.Yum.

So, as any readers of this blog know, Viva Vegan! is my absolute favorite cookbook (perhaps not coincidently, the first vegan cookbook I ever bought). Anyways, when I bought it this summer, I couldn't wait to make this recipe for a creamy, potato/peanut butter/chickpea or seitan (heh, I used both in mine!) stew. Alas, who wants stew when it's 90 degrees out?!?! However, it is now cold:) This means it's stew time!

This stew is really, really tasty, and pretty easy to make! And, as a bonus, it makes a lot, so you get to eat lots of leftovers! I really loved it, and apparently, I am not the only one:)

This is the stew before I added the peanut butter, lime juice and unsweetened soy milk (as you can see: potato, chickpea, tomato, seitan, red pepper, veggie broth, and some spices--super simple!):

And here is the delicious finished product (and yeah, I know--all of my food pics look the same with weird lighting and such--it may be my new goal to learn to take better pictures). I served it with a quickly made brown rice w/garlic and lime juice:

As I am looking at these pictures, I am realizing it is a great time to eat...so off to amazing guatita leftovers I go!

Sweet Chili Lime Tofu

Ok, so no picture on this one....although I have made the tofu and sauce *somewhat unsuccessfully* before here.

I would've snapped a picture, but by the time I thought of it, I had mixed the quinoa, tofu, sauce, kale and broccoli together into a not-so-visually appealing plate.

Anyways, my roommate got this cookbook as a gift, and I remembered this recipe from before, and thought that I would give it another try. I must say, it turned out much, much better this time!

I followed the recipe almost exactly. The change that I made was adding in a cornstarch/water mixture (a little less than 1 tbs. cornstarch and 1 and some more tbs. water) to the sauce after I warmed the sauce on the stove, then stirred and watched carefully (so there was no burning!!). The sauce thickened up and ended up tasting like one of those not-at-all-good-for-you-but-good-tasting sauces served at Chinese take-out places.

There seem like a lot of steps, but really, it's pretty simple. I put the quinoa (and you could certainly use rice) in the rice maker then worked on the tofu. When the tofu was nearly done, I started steaming the kale and broccoli and made the sauce. The whole thing was relatively simple and really tasty:)

What Have I been Eating? Not things I have cooked myself....

Lately, I have done very little "real cooking." For the purpose of this post, I am going to define "real cooking" as anything that falls into one of these categories: (1) takes longer than 10 minutes to prep (cut, slice, peel, season, etc...); (2) takes longer than 20 minutes total--prep to done; or, (3) requires more than one dish to make.Now I know, there are "one pot" dishes, but I am sure these more than likely fall into areas (1) or (2).

Anyways, between teaching my 5 classes (it is nearing the end of the semester, student now magically decide to turn in work that they have had all semester to complete) and going through random bouts of illness, cooking hasn't been on my priority list. This means, among other things, that I have not been getting enough vegetables (which I am sure didn't help my sickness at all). I actually went to the grocery store and picked up some of my favorites: kale, broccoli, sweet potatoes, oranges and limes. I figure I can make some delicious food from these items this week.

I already made a broccoli, kale, soy beans and rice concoction that was delicious (I made the rice with coconut milk and lime juice---yum!!!). Tomorrow, when I get home from work, I plan on making some sweet potato fries, some sauteed kale and maybe some fresh-squeezed orange juice. Hopefully, there will finally be some new posts on food to come!

Aji Amarillo Sauce

 So, after some rather depressing news yesterday (an article I submitted didn't get accepted for publication), I went home and made some much needed comforting food.

I bought this jar of aji amarillo paste at the local Mexican grocery to make a recipe. Well, it was just sitting there, and I had a feeling it would be tasty in other things too, I just didn't know what. After perusing teh internets for a while, I took some ideas from many different sauces--meant to go with aji de gallina (a creamy, spicy chicken dish) and veganized the heck outta it.

Here's what's in my version of the sauce:

--1 piece whole wheat sprouted bread soaked in almond milk with some sugar (don't eat condensed milk and didn't have any soy creamer, it worked fine)
--1/2 jar of aji amarillo paste
--2 tsp. aji panca (same pepper, just dried then pasted)
--2 cloves minced garlic
--1-2 tsp. lemon juice (all out of limes, they would have been better probably)
--pinch of Mexican oregano and tumeric
--splash or two of veggie broth

1. Put ingredients in blender (all but the veggie broth)
2. Mix around and such until everything is dissolved.
3. Add veggie broth until sauce is desired consistency.

I put this over some Gardein cutlets. It would have worked with tofu, seitan or even maybe tempeh. I also made my favorite lime and garlic rice (just add lime juice, garlic, and olive oil to brown rice and cook it normally). I served it up with some tostones, and it was delicious! Aji amarillo is different than other spicy sauces you may be used to. It's hotter than a jalapeno, but has a different flavor. It starts off somewhat fruity and finishes hot.

Yum!

The night was finished off by checking out some bands at a local pub. They were both great! I really enjoyed the all-female group, Frankie Rose and The Outs--super great!
The first was was great too, except the bassist kept giving me the weird eye. But I was handed a free cd without prompting so, oh well:)

"I don't Believe in Vegans"

Here is a photo (note the conclusion at the bottom):

Check out the awesome response at My Face Is On Fire.

My response to the "there is no such thing as a vegan" is like my friend Grace's response to "I don't believe in abortion":

Well, they EXIST.

Surprisingly Good Food I Made Today

No picture on this one....

I was making something quick and tasty for myself and my boyfriend this afternoon. We decided on rice and beans and some veggies for a side. I haven't eaten anything remotely "Asian-inspired" lately, so I decided to attempt to whip up some interesting and tasty flavored simple foods. It actually worked surprisingly well:) While the veggies I used are hardly "Asian-inspired," they were in need of use, and tasted great! Here's what we had:

Ginger and Garlic Rice:

-1 c. brown rice
- 1 3/4 c. veggie stock
-2 cloves minced garlic
-small piece of fresh ginger, grated
-1 tsp. olive oil
-1/4 c. lemon juice

instructions: put it in the rice cooker. Easy!

Sauteed Soy Beans: (Scott picked out the beans he wanted, these were them)

-1 can soy beans
-2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp. Tamari
- 1 tsp. olive oil and 1-2 tsp. sesame oil 
- sesame seeds
- pepper

instructions: 
1. add 1 tsp. olive oil to a skillet with the garlic and fry garlic for about 30 seconds until fragrant
2. add the soy beans, tamari, sesame oil and pepper, saute until hot
3. sprinkle with sesame seeds

"Asian-Inspired" Roasted Potatoes and Carrots (yeah, weird I know):

- left over potatoes and carrots (1 large carrot and 4 baby yellow potatoes
Sauce/Marinade: 
- 2 or so tsp. olive oil
- splash of sesame oil
- tamari
-tiny bit of sweet chili sauce
- tiny bit of sugar

Ok, so I didn't measure, just tossed stuff in and smelled it.

Instructions:
1. Chop up veggies into small chunks mix with sauce/marinade and wrap in aluminum foil
2. Bake in oven until desired tenderness (I don't know, like 40 minutes or so I think)

As I said, this meal seems weird, and was sorta just thrown together with extras I had laying around. But, it ended up being really tasty and a nice change from the types of flavors I usually enjoy eating.